Count
by Mrs. Story
Summary: Kakashi can only count, anything and everything. All because Sakura left. KakashixSakura


**Hi, this is just a oneshot I made. I hope you like it and tell me what you think **

**Disclaimer: I am not Masashi Kishimoto. These following lines are only my fan girl dreams.**

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_Count_

Three weeks, six days, seven hours, and twenty-nine minutes. It's been three weeks, six days, seven hours, and twenty-nine minutes since Kakashi has last spoken to Sakura, last seen her. And definitely the last time he would gladly watch her leave. That mistake was quickly learned after a week and two days.

Kakashi doesn't particularly like numbers, but counting is all he can do these days. He counts how many times he's gotten Sakura's voicemail; 31. He counts how many times he's relived her last night here in his mind; 17. He counts the number of melancholy love songs in his playlist; 165. He counts how many times Asuma or Iruka have called to invite him out; 21, and how many times he refuses the offers; 20. (Kakashi simply hung up the last time.) He counts the paces required to go from his bed to the bathroom and back to his bed again (because what else is there to do besides sleep?; six there and six back.

Kakashi never acted like this, restlessly obsessing over numbers. But he is now. Because it's detail. And detail was everything he missed in the beginning, resulting in losing Sakura.

He lies in bed, counting his breaths, when the phone rings. He listens as it rings two more times before he finally takes the 15 steps to the phone and hesitantly picks it up. "Hello?" he asks, waiting to hear the voice on the other end of the line. He hopes its Sakura. He would pray, if he believed in that sort of thing. But he doesn't. So he just waits to hear another voice.

"Kakashi?"

Kakashi's heart skips two beats and he pauses, because for three whole seconds, as he delays his response, he can pretend she's really calling him. Out of love. Out of concern. Out of need.

"Sakura?"

"Would you…like to have dinner tonight?" Sakura asks nervously.

The one second lapse in her question doesn't deter Kakashi from being hopeful. He consents to dinner, and as she reminds him not to be late, Kakashi matches her words with some of his own.

"Maybe we could eat dinner at home instead?"

Sakura lets out a long sigh (that Kakashi counts and finds to be four seconds long) before responding a small 'fine'. Kakashi senses that maybe Sakura doesn't consider the small house her home anymore. _Why?_

No, he shuts out any negative thoughts. Sakura was coming. Focus.

They say good-bye, like distant cousins you would only meet once, and Kakashi walks the thirteen steps from his phone to the bathroom. Kakashi wonders if thirteen steps is bad luck. A sign that says everything tonight will go horribly wrong. But, how could anything go wrong if he gets to see her? How could anything bad ever happen when you're in the same room as someone so wonderful?

Kakashi pushes these thoughts away and picks up his toothbrush. Twenty brushes on the left. Twenty brushes on the right. Twenty brushes in the middle. Spit. Rinse. Gargle.

Kakashi continues to carefully prepare himself for tonight till he feels his appearance is as presentable as it could be. Afterwards, he walks the twenty steps from the bathroom to his bed and makes it because she always liked having the house in a clean state. He then takes eight steps to his closet and searches quickly through it, realizing nothing in here is suitable. Kakashi isn't sure what to wear. There are so many clothes that she always frowned upon, yet he wore them anyway. He tallies the number of shirts she never liked; 12. There's only one pair of pants she didn't like too, the black skinny jeans. Should he count the pants too and make the number 13 instead? Kakashi isn't sure. He is sure of tonight's ensemble: a navy blue training shirt and jeans, because it's minimal and shows his attention to the bigger things. To detail.

Kakashi starts preparing dinner now and thinks about all of Sakura's strange little quirks that would go unnoticed to most, but not to him. Like the way she clicks her pens and pops her gum. He used to go crazy from these little nuances, but now he's going crazy without these little annoyances. He noticed everything from the way she folded corners of pages to keep her place (bookmarks always ended up lost) to the way she tied her sneakers before training (bunny ears because she never learned the right way).

So yes, Kakashi was attentive to detail. Just not the detail that caused Sakura to leave.

Kakashi turns the stove dial to 'off' just as the doorbell rings at seven, sharp. For once, he's all ready. Not running behind. Not 'almost done'. But prepared. He doesn't give himself time to be proud because he sprints the fourteen steps from the kitchen to the front door, and then back another twenty two when he realizes she's going in the back way.

When Sakura finally steps in the house, there's no hello, and she mentally notes the dirty dishes in the sink. Kakashi anxiously tugs on his shirt, realizing his mistake. Defeated, he silently makes a plate for Sakura and places it in front of her. It's her favorite, cheese covered chicken.

Dinner isn't quietly eaten, but there isn't talking. Forks scrap, ice cubes clink, chairs shuffle, and there's a lot of throat clearing. But dinner is done, Kakashi takes a chance. Despite his better judgment and everything he had told himself, he breaks the silence that isn't really silence and asks what Sakura's doing here.

He counts the number of seconds it takes Sakura to reply; five. Five is too large a number for that and he knows something must be up.

So with a deep breath and butterflies in his stomach, Kakashi takes Sakura's hand. He had to move his hand about four inches, but when he finally touches her, he can't really remember how close he was before. Or how close he _thought_ he was. Because nothing like that could ever compare to how close he is now.

Sakura looks up from her empty plate and sighs, "I don't know." Kakashi reflexively counts how long it took her to reply but he simply couldn't. He started at one but could not, for the life of him, remember what came next. Not when she is just inches from him and…smiling? It's not a full smile though, but more of a half smile that throws Kakashi off. How do you count something that's a half? Surely you can't. So what does that mean? The thought leaves Kakashi with a look of confusion and by now Sakura has one full smile. Kakashi counts the two dimples on the corners of her mouth, counts the four pink strands on her forehead, and realizes he couldn't count how long this feeling between them will last, try as he might. But that's okay. Kakashi makes _this_ moment count. And that's what matters.

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**I hope you liked it! 3**

**Love, Mrs. Story**


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